{"id":428,"date":"2001-09-05T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2001-09-05T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/1millionbestdownloads.com\/mind-body-how-bad-are-your-past-sins-really\/"},"modified":"2001-09-05T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2001-09-05T00:00:00","slug":"mind-body-how-bad-are-your-past-sins-really","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/1millionbestdownloads.com\/mind-body-how-bad-are-your-past-sins-really\/","title":{"rendered":"How Bad Are Your Past Sins Really?"},"content":{"rendered":"
Let's be honest: Many of us-OK, most of us-weren't exactly paragons of health in our youth. And we can't help wondering: Will those margaritas, junk-food binges, forgotten condoms, or even that one bong hit eventually come back to haunt us? 'I cringe when I think of the abuse I heaped on my body when I was younger-smoking, drinking, using tanning beds,' says Stephanie Marchant, 43, a marketing consultant in Woodstock, Georgia. 'I'd like to try to repair the damage, but I wonder how much I can do at this point. Is the damage already done?'<\/p>\n
To find out just how worried Marchant and the rest of us should be, we took our fears straight to the people who should know: health experts who've studied the long-term effects of those youthful bad habits. What they say may surprise-and reassure-you.<\/p>\n
In your past:<\/strong> You loved to party-with a margarita in your hand.<\/strong><\/p>\n It's no big deal if…<\/strong>you overdid it once in a while in college or your 20s, but you're a moderate drinker now. One can have a drink every day without dire consequences. The liver has a wonderful ability to regenerate, so unless you inflicted years<\/em> of damage, you're probably OK.<\/p>\n It might matter if…<\/strong>you used to binge nightly (defined as four or more drinks in about two hours), or you're still having multiple drinks each day. 'Binge drinking can kill neurons in the brain, affecting decisionmaking, learning, and memory. The more you do it, the greater the risk,' says Fulton Crews, PhD, director of the Bowles Center for Alcohol Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine. Plus, because the liver is responsible for breaking down alcohol and clearing it from the body, heavy drinking-more than a few drinks a day for over 10 years-can cause hepatitis, cirrhosis, and liver cancer. Experts also say that more than a drink a day increases the risk of breast cancer.<\/p>\n To start fresh:<\/strong><\/p>\n [ pagebreak ]<\/p>\n In your past:<\/strong> You lived on fast food.<\/strong><\/p>\n It's no big deal if…<\/strong>you ate a couple of fast-food meals a week in your teens and 20s. A little junk food won't hurt you long term.<\/p>\n It might matter if…<\/strong>you hit the drive-through nightly. If you spent years eating as if the basic food groups were burgers, fries, and pizza (loaded with saturated fat), or snacking on nothing but store-bought cookies and chips (trans-fat heavy), it's safe to say you ate too much bad fat. 'A high-fat diet can pose a serious risk for heart disease,' says John P. Foreyt, PhD, director of the Behavioral Medicine Research Center at Baylor College of Medicine. 'Fortunately, studies show that you can reverse arterial damage if you change your diet and get more exercise, and even small changes can have significant effects.'<\/p>\n To start fresh:<\/strong><\/p>\n [ pagebreak ]<\/p>\n In your past:<\/strong> You spent your summer weekends soaking up the sun sans SPF.<\/strong><\/p>\n It's not a big deal if…<\/strong>you've been religious about SPF 30 for the past decade or more. You still damaged your skin (sorry!), but you're certainly better off than those who've never given up unfiltered sun worship.<\/p>\n It might matter if…<\/strong>you tanned for years (or still do). The sun's ultraviolet rays not only erode collagen and elastin (the skin's structural supports), causing premature signs of aging, but also cause mutations in its cells' DNA. Although most damaged cells die, some can replicate, giving rise to skin cancer. 'The generation of women who grew up in the '60s and '70s, before the safe-sun message was out there, may get more skin cancer than any in history,' says Ellen Marmur, MD, author of Simple Skin Beauty<\/em> and chief of dermatologic and cosmetic surgery at The Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City.<\/p>\n And, she says, if you went to tanning salons, your risk may be especially high: Even a few sessions can increase your risk of melanoma. 'If you regularly find new moles and have had precancerous growths called actinic keratoses, those are signs that your body hasn't responded well to the sun,' says Jason Reichenberg, MD, associate program director for the University of Texas Southwestern Department of Dermatology in Austin.<\/p>\n To start fresh:<\/strong><\/p>\n [ pagebreak ]<\/p>\n\n
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